When Ireland finally got into the swing of things

History; Sixties Ireland Reshaping the Economy, State and Society, 1957-1973; By Mary E Daly; Cambridge University ; Press, €27

The 1960s in Ireland: the long arm of the Church was always at play Pic: Arthur Fields Collection

Mary Daly’s Sixties Ireland is a book of mixed merit. Although Daly, a professor emeritus in modern Irish history at UCD, doesn’t get everything right in this study of the 1960s in Ireland, sometimes attempting to cover too much ground, she nonetheless does much valuable work in tackling this important period in Irish history.

Daly’s aim is to chart the slow liberalisation of the Irish republic in the 1960s, detailing the change from ...